Are you capable of believing in God?

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Well, I believe that somebody is watching over me, because I don't think I could've made it this far on my own.
It could be God.
It could be my guardian angel.
I don't know for sure.
All I know is that it's somebody who cares for me & that's more than enough.

Some of you Christians are just so gullible.



If by better things you mean, a life of service to God for an eternity in Heaven, then my answer is yes.

"If a boy has an imaginary friend at 6 he is creative.
If a boy has an imaginary friend at 10, he is lonely.
If a boy has an imaginary friend at 16, he is delusional.
If a boy devotes his entire being and lifetime to an imaginary friend, he is a good God loving man."

To answer the primary question : Capable? Yes.
But do I?

Hell no.

-Crow, a fiercely proud Atheist

i can respect that.

Faith comes pretty natural to me.

Am I capable of believing in God? Yes. Though many here disbelieve in the existence of God, it is every person's right to believe, or not to believe, in God.

I am not going to debate religion on here, because it usually leads nowhere for either side of the debate. And there's no guarantee I will even look at this thread anymore to add anything. But the OP asked the question in the thread title, and I answered it truthfully.

And we as human beings that believe in God (or any other deity for the varied religions of the world) are not mentally ill or delusional. I respect a person's right to believe how he or she wants to believe. And I believe we should all respect the diversity of this world.

I believe in courtesy. I believe in politeness. I believe in respect. Perhaps before we argue each other and put down others personal beliefs (for or against) we should value this courtesy, politeness, and respect.

Ugh, every time I visit this thread I develop hatred. I'm an easy-going and laid-back person, so that rarely ever happens.

Everyone claims to know the truth, everyone fights over their ideas of "truth". Everyone calls everyone who doesn't subscribe to their way of thinking "close-minded", ignorant, and laughs at them. No one can see out of their own ideas and thus no one can understand why others thinks differently... even though they all think like this.

And yet everyone wants "peace", but isn't willing to work towards it. Just keep on fighting. Peace Sells, But Who's Buying?

There's no difference between either "side" in this case.

I don't intend to easily change my views that I see are best. At least I don't tell everyone else they're wrong, laugh behind their back, and hope their "inferior minds are weeded out of the human race", which in a Christians vs. Atheists debate, both sides seem to think the same.

... Then I just get mad at myself because I feel like I'm possibly even changing the topic. The point is, religion arguments are stupid, because in reality, they go nowhere. No one is willing to humble themselves before the enemy and call themselves the ignorant one. Why not get a truce?

When religious people and organizations can respect my rights when I say no and stop banging my door down for donations and stop calling me a sinner just because I don't believe their way is the only way, then I will respect them and not until. It's a two way street, no matter how pious one appears.

Glider, and dnuos: the greatest tragedy in this is a claim that an issue of religion is some sort of a debate amongst equals; a comparative study of two different belief systems.

IT IS NOT.

It is reason vs. the unreasonable.

How can a reasonable person take any of the organized religions seriously? They all have their bases in social influence and collective delusions. Christianity in particular is nothing more than a collection of hokey stories of questionable origin and dubious moral character.

The fraud I loathe the most is this claim of some sort of persecution from the hands of the atheists. How's pointing one's lifetime of ignorance and servitude a persecution?

And also the claim that either side couldn't possibly know the truth. I don't have all the answers. But I know for sure that I don't want the wrong answers, regardless of how comforting they may be to some.

Finally I leave you with some food for thought: what is the difference between the major religions and Scientology? Answer: centuries of history. The former are socially acceptable, and the latter is mostly not. All have had the same origin: one charismatic dude with a power trip. Most crash and burn (David Koresh?) and some stick around for 2000 years.

Woah, me too. Were you raised in a Christian family or something? Because I was and now I don't believe it. I want to, but I just can't 'anymore'. What'd you do when you realized that? Did you tell your family or what? Because I'm stuck in a terrible position right now and I'd love to hear how you dealt with it.

It comes hard to me. I prefer to see evidence before I commit.

ruveyn

Wow, I completely agree with you. I've been on both sides of the fence. When I had faith in God, I thought Atheist were the bad guys. When I stopped believing I thought Christians were the bad guys. But when you just sit bad and look at both sides you start to realize that fighting is pointless. Who is the 'real' bad guy? Are we all bad guys? Are we all good guys? We should stop looking at what is different and look at what's the same. Same earth, same sky. I think we should all stop fighting over something that can't be answered...(at the moment)

While I haven't been an Atheist, I've gone from Christian to Agnostic for a brief period (before switching back with really unorthodox views) and that's pretty much what I'm getting at. Although it's a pipe dream at best, we should be dedicating all our efforts to other problems right now, such as world hunger. Among other, quite frankly, more important problems. It's just like Lennon's song Imagine. At least for a day remember we're all the same.

I give up though, it's just not healthy for me to try here. I'm too wishy-washy and peace-loving and an overall sissy, for not wanting to see threads like this. Maybe I'm just ret*d. Bite me. Although I've calmed down now, after the last post, seeing another Corp900 thread I lost it and wanted to yell. I've had anger problems, and they weren't pleasant. I prefer to keep my composure, and any conflict of beliefs or morality just isn't my cup of tea, so I'm gone.

I'll just leave with this: This thread is a clear example why, as a Christian, I am not capable of believing in hell. Everyone's persistent. I've already thrown two music references, so why not another... like Mayer's song Belief, most people aren't that capable of changing their belief, it's how the human brain is wired. I believe in a loving God. A loving, all-knowing God - those two attributes in mind, hell's completely out of the question for me. I may be a (rather skewed) Christian, but I'm not content with what the church does or says.

I'm exactly like the OP. I don't think I'm capable of believing in the Christian religion, though I'm not interested in debating or "proselytizing" my atheism. I can see why people might want to believe in a personal god, but for me I can't wrap my head around the idea of "choosing" to believe in something. To me belief isn't a conscious choice. I can't make something "real" just by forcing myself to believe in it. It seems too egocentric.

I also can't stomach the idea that a god would judge me or punish me for being unable to believe in it's existence. At one point around the age of 9 my parents sent me to this fundamentalist Christian camp and the counselors were pounding everyone over the head that if they weren't "born again" they would end up in hell. They even had a skit where a person in the execution chair, supposedly after being sentenced for murder, begs God for forgiveness and is "saved" while a loving mother who dies in a car crash is sent to hell. They had me scared enough that I decided I should try and "make" myself believe "just in case", but I realized that believing in something due to fearful coercion wasn't genuine faith. Actually I was screwed no matter what because there was no way I could force myself to be completely convinced in the existence of God no matter how much I feared hell. If their god did exist he was a horrific monster to which all of humanity was held captive, and the actions of believers praising this god were akin to something like Stockholm Syndrome. I mean, deep down everyone must hate such an unjust god, yet they can never consciously admit it out of fear.

Last edited by marshall on 16 Sep 2010, 11:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Am I capable of believing in God? Not as such - I am far too aware of reality to anthropomorphize it. However, that is not to say I am incapable of spirituality - in other words, of recognizing that I am merely part of a whole, and that there is nothing fundamentally different about me and anything else. So rather than adopting the position of the cynical contingent within atheism, I do not perceive the universe as empty, tragic, or pointless, nor myself as a cosmic joke - rather, I see everything as being alive and holding intrinsic (albeit transient) meaning that does not require outside agency. In the Star Trek universe, Vulcans have a concept called "IDIC" - Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations - that I find uniquely suited to my understanding. Regard my signature line.

Yeah, I've seen threads like this one in forums all over the internet. I've been taken part in some. The threads never end.. They just go on forever. Everyone wan't to have the last word and to convince the other person that they're wrong. No one can ever agree to disagree.

What really gets my goat about a small percentage of "fundamentalist" Christians is that they keep insisting a person will go to Hell for not believing. Of course if your disbelief is 100%, then as far as you're concerned there's going to be no such judgement, so you won't be worried. The religious scaremongers are after those of us whose disbelief is less than 100% (which covers intelligent people very nicely because most of them have worked out that you can't disprove the existence of a thing, therefore there's no choice but to accept that it might exist, even if it looks very unlikely). Logically the scaremongering will make such people feel uneasy because of the possible (albeit unlikely) horrific consequenses of getting it wrong and opting for atheism.

Anybody anxious about this scaremongering should take comfort in the story of Thomas in the New Testament, which makes plain that you can be as skeptical as you like without losing your ticket to Heaven. If you should die and St. Peter tries to send you off to Old Harry's place as a punishment for not believing without evidence, you should immediately appeal, quoting Thomas' experiences. If Pete tries to use other Biblical quotes to back up his case, explain that this means the Thomas story was a lie, and that the Bible was therefore too self-contradictory to allow you to know what to believe. Before you die, dig out and memorize a few Biblical quotes about how compassionate and loving God is, and quote them as part of your defense.